Lorazepam and Klonopin...don't take both at same time but need help tapering please?

I'm sure there are many of you who successfully got off of benzos. How did I get hooked? I was addicted to pain medicine after a back injury...I decided that weaning off of them was not an option as long as they were in my possession. So I decided to go on Suboxone in conjunction with therapy. Well it worked like a charm! No withdrawal symptoms I felt great like this is the cure! Well the sub doctor advised that I'd stay on it for at least a year. I did not want to trade one addiction with painful withdrawals for another so only decided to stay on it for 5 months. During the last two months, thanks to this site and reading some of the posts on this site, I tapered down. I did not do the every other day thing or follow it to a T, so I did have some withdrawal symptoms like flu like symptoms, very very nauseated and achy. So I decided to go on benzos to help curb these horrible withdrawal symptoms which worked perfectly. So for my pain I was prescribed Neurontin. Boy was that heck to get off of. I was nauseated with HORRIBLE headaches, and I was SO exhausted. Now I'm addicted to benzos because I had to take something to function. I have a prescription for 0.5 Klonopin and my husband gets 1mg x 2 daily which I was taking since he didn't need them. I also bought some xanax on the street so I can't calculate or give a specific daily amount. I would estimate on average at that time of withdrawing from Neurontin(and suboxone that took a long time) about 3mg a day on xanax or klonopin off a friend who sells them(yah I know bad but I know him really well and he understood). But lately, I've been taking 1mg of Ativan in the morning and at night. So recently I bought fifteen 2mg Klonopins and 7 0.5 xanax just in case kind of thing. I still have some ativan left, but not enough for 2 a day till the refill is due because the Neurontin withdrawal was brutal which resulted in me taking three 1mg ativans a day. I get my 0.5 Klonopins the 15th...so now I have plenty to fill in the gaps. I cut the 2mg of Klonopin in half. Klonopin takes away all my aches and pains, which now I know is attributed to not having benzos...ativan did the trick but i still felt headaches etc. I want a good plan to get off of these. I was prescribed 0.25 xanax in the past for my anxiety for years and never took it daily, just when I had horrible anxiety which was caused from some very very stressful events that took place in my life. So, I conquered Suboxone, Neurontin...but can't see to kick this benzo dependence. At first when I stopped the Neurontin...not too long ago, I took 3 ativans because my head was pounding and I had aches and pains all over. Then went back down to two. I never took more than 2 prior....or more than two of my Klonopin except when I was weaning off suboxone. I am very good at taking the prescribed dose at this point. How do I get off these things? My doctor was reluctant to put me on Valium to help me kick this and my psychiatrist is adamant about not helping me through this. Horrible eh? So i need a good tapering schedule so I don't call off work sick or have people asking me "are you ok?" Thanks.

Initially I was prescribed 0.25 xanax once per day for panic attacks. Then the doc upped my dose. This was about 5 years ago. I only took it when needed, not daily. He increased it to 0.5 mg and never went any higher. After I hurt my back, I was prescribed percocet and noticed after a month if I didn't take any for a day or two I was sick. I didn't want to rely on them so I tried to wean myself off but that didn't work. So I took the Sub route. I weaned off sub(which took a month or two) and when I was off of that I was taking xanax daily. I read Klonopin worked better so I took Klonopin...maybe 2mg daily for a month or so, not in conjunction with the xanax. Then took the lower dose of my xanax once I ran out plus wanted to wean THEN. Instead of narcotics for pain, I was prescribed Neurontin...during the time between the end of my sub taper and starting neurontin I was taking my prescribed 0.5 xanax twice a day..it relieved my symptoms from the sub(was ill for over a month after going off of suboxone/sub) plus I felt THAT was another thing I couldn't quit taking. I was on Neurontin for about 5 months during the course of taking xanax, I did cut down to one to one every other day. After I weaned off of Neurontin...after my last dose...well a few days later I was SO sick. So I got some Klonopin and what a relief(off a friend). I talked to my doc about putting me on Klonopin. So he prescribed 0.5mg two times a day. In addition I was taking a little more because I was so nauseated and sick at first...then ran out of the 0.5mg and started taking Ativan(husband's) this past month which was 1mg three times a day for about two weeks then 1mg two times a day. Ran out and prescription at that time would have been due in a few days...within those few days bought Klonopin...so just for the last 3 days I've been taking about 2mg daily of klonopin. I have enough till I get my prescription in 5 days. I plan on less from here on out then going to 0.5mg of klonopin and wonder how to get off from there.

You can come off with the klonipin. However, I'm having a hard time fixing exactly how much benzo between the ativan and k-pin you are ACTUALLY taking daily. Benzo's are dangerous drugs. You were likely sick from the neurontin because it acts on the same receptors as benzo drugs do. .5mg of k-pin = 1mg. of ativan. k-pin has a longer half life and will be easier to wean from because of inter-dose withdrawal. I would drop, using the k-pin no more than .125mg (which is 1/4 of your .5mg k-pin every 10 days or so). Will you have some symptoms? Probably. You will need to monitor those symptoms carefully. Avoid caffiene, soda, energy drinks, go for water and pure fruit juices, bananas are good for the pottasium. Eat a good diet, avoiding processed and fast foods. More than anything else, you need to go slowly: slow and steady wins the race with benzos.

Peace,

Iloerose

PS: most docs don't like valium because of it's addictive nature, LOL. Like the others aren't addicting. The value of using a benzo with a longer half life is avoiding the inter-dose w/d.